1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the collection of aquatic growth in inland and coastal rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, and more specifically, to an aquatic plant sampler which is designed to determine the concentrations of bottom-rooted vegetation in such bodies of water by taking numerous samples and extrapolating the results of such sampling to estimate the amount and types of marine vegetation in the body of water. Such information is vitally important in order to determine methods and techniques of controlling aquatic vegetation, and in continuously monitering the effectiveness of such control techniques. The aquatic plant sampler of this invention is designed to be quickly and easily moved from one body of water to another, and is also designed to be quickly and easily set up for securing multiple samples at substantially any depth on any lake, river or reservoir under investigation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that all inland bodies of water are subject to a natural aging process which can be broadly characterized by three stages. The first stage is generally characterized by clear water, with smooth, substantially vegetation-free banks and low aquatic plant productivity. In the second stage, sediment and algae begins to accumulate on the bottom and banks of the water body, and vegetation begins to grow on the shore. Water productivity increases with a steadily increasing nutrient content. In the last stage of the aging process the water body is filled with silt and organic sediment, and marshy areas appear around the banks with extensive vegetation on the banks. The water gradually becomes filled with various forms of aquatic vegetation which encroaches from the bank area toward the center of the water body.
This aging process is constantly being accelerated by industrial waste, untreated or inadequately treated sewage effluent and other chemical discharge into inland rivers, lakes and reservoirs. The result has been a rapid increase in the growth rate of aquatic plant life in these water bodies to the extent that many of them have been rendered unsafe, unusable and unhealthy, and some have been effectively neutralized as a usable natural resource.
Recognition of this problem has precipitated a number of remedial projects, including removal of phosphates from detergents, but thus far preventative efforts to deal with the problem have fallen far short of effectively controlling it. Steps have also been taken to remove accumulated aquatic plant life by poisoning, water level control and by introducing certain varieties of fish into the striken water body, but these attempts to control the vegetation have thus far met with limited success. Apparatus for harvesting the vegetation have been proposed, such as the apparatus disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,698,163, and this technique may well prove to be the most effective way to deal with the problem in many instances.
The marine life which has enjoyed such a prolific reproduction in our inland lakes, rivers and reservoirs seems to have a tendency to grow extremely rapidly in such water bodies regardless of whether the bodies are characterized by clarity or turbidity. While the growth appears to reproduce particularly rapidly in clear water it is also found in lakes, streams and reservoirs which are turbid, and in many cases is present to the extent that it chokes out other aquatic growth and completely covers the body of water in question. Such plant life includes several varieties of moss, algae, and water hyacinth, and while spraying techniques have met with limited success in controlling such growth, the only known technique of effectively controlling these aquatic plants on a continuing basis is periodically lowering the water level to permit the sun to kill the growth.
There have been developed in the prior art no known techniques for accurately measuring aquatic growth at varying water depths to determine the extent and rapidity of growth and to accurately assess conditions for controlling such growth. Conventional attempts to gather such samples have generally taken the form of sample gathering by means of small boats, which samples have been generally limited to surface growth quantities with very little effort being made to procure samples of aquatic growth at varying depth levels, including bottom samples. These efforts are frequently hampered by the difficulty of maneuvering a watercraft into an area choked with aquatic life because of the difficulty of operating outboard motors in such areas due to entanglement of the growth in the motor propellor. Even propulsion of small boats through such growth by paddles has proved difficult, and the small size of such boats renders the collection of numerous samples or samples of significant size difficult.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved aquatic biological mass sampler which is capable of procuring a substantially unlimited number of aquatic plant samples at varying water depths, including water bottom samples.
Another object of this invention is to provide an aquatic plant sampler which is mounted on a barge and can be lowered into the water to procure samples at substantially any water depth, including bottom samples, which sampler is characterized by a collecting bucket equipped with cutter blades for cutting the aquatic growth and boring into the bottom of the reservoir, lake or pond to secure bottom samples.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved barge-mounted aquatic growth sampler which is characterized by a bucket having a bottom which can be selectively opened and closed while the bucket is submerged, and a cutter blade apparatus which is capable of isolating a sample for entrapment in the bucket when the bucket is lowered by means of a chain into the water of a lake, pond, river or reservoir to procure a sample of the marine growth or water bottom in the water body.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an aquatic plant sampler which is characterized by a pontoon-equipped watercraft having a hole cut in the deck for lowering a collecting bucket having cutter blades for severing the aquatic growth and inwardly opening bottom panels for collecting the severed and "cored" growth, which barge is also equipped with both underwater and top water propulsion means.
A still further object of this invention is to provide an aquatic plant sampling watercraft which includes a barge floated by a pair of pontoons and selectively driven by an air propulsion system and an inboard, inboard-outboard or outboard propulsion system, and a sampling bucket fitted with rotating cutter blades and a bottom capable of being selectively opened and closed to cut and hold a sample of aquatic vegetation or a water bottom sample, which bucket can be lowered at a selected rate into the water and retrieved at a selected rate after a sample is secured at substantially any specified water depth.